meningitis

Hello Family

As most of you know, after a week of being very ill my boss sent me to the ER after recognizing the symptoms of meningitis through an instant message conversation (I know better than to go to the office when I feel yucky). I was pretty impressed with his insight after the diagnosis and asked him how it was that he was so smart, "I have three kids" was his cheeky reply. Well, I have six, you'd think I'd know a thing or two. But I didn't.

I'm fine. The meningitis I have is viral; same symptoms - much lower risk of death, brain damage or disabling after-effects than the bacterial or fungal forms of meningitis. Getting better requires rest, good food and SLOWING down (not my specialty). Jaqui and Mom also know that prayer is also a good idea and I'm happy to have as many of those and/or good energy via kind wishes and love. The only other thing I really want is Grandma L's turkey noodle soup and Grandma W's tapioca. Clay got me some tappi from the store, but hmph, it aint Gram's!

THE REASON for this post is not to elicit sympathy, but to make sure that each one of you is better educated than I was. My symptoms were classic and if the infection had been bacterial I would have been dead before I made it to the hospital (six days post symptom onset). Please, even if you and your children have been immunized - there are several forms of the disease not covered by the immunization, learn about the symptoms of this disease and what to do when symptoms present. This site is a good place to start http://www.meningitis.org/ Hopefully this experience will make all of us wiser and safer.